"Double Date" is the seventeenth episode in the second season of the NBC family sitcom Family Ties. It originally aired on February 16, 1984, and is the thirty-ninth episode of the series overall.
Synopsis[]
Alex is turned down when he asks his dream girl Jocelyn to the senior prom, and then invites the more unassuming Rachel. But when Jocelyn becomes available again, Alex finds himself with two dates, and devises a plan to take them both.
Plot[]
Alex is chairman of the senior prom committee and see to all the preparations. He asks Jocelyn Clark (played by Jami Gertz), but she is already going with someone else. Because of the rejection he invites Rachel Miller (played by Daphne Zuniga), someone not his first choice, but who cares more about him. She accepts. But when Jocelyn's boyfriend breaks their date to the prom, she comes back to Alex and asks him to go to the prom. He accepts. Alex develops an elaborate plan on how to entertain both girls (without either of them knowing about the other). Alex ends up in an interesting spot at the end.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Meredith Baxter as Elyse Keaton
- Michael Gross as Steven Keaton
- Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton
- Justine Bateman as Mallory Keaton
- Tina Yothers as Jennifer Keaton
Guest Starring[]
- Jami Gertz as Jocelyn Clark
- Marc Price as Skippy Handelman
- Terry Wills as Dr. Schulte
- Daphne Zuniga as Rachel Miller
Co-Starring[]
Quotes[]
- Alex: "I admit, my uh, credibility is a bit suspect right now."
- Skippy: "Tonight, Alex and I have a date with dentistry!"
- Alex: "Destiny, Skip. Destiny."
Trivia[]
- Rachel chose the theme of the prom as "Gone with the Wind". Alex had suggested "Sunset on Wall Street".
- Jennifer relates her poem that was read in front of her class: "We live in a shadow of nuclear bomb. One day we're here, the next we're gone." (A theme much more common in 1984 than the present - The Day After, an eerily-real movie about nuclear war, had been broadcast November 20, 1983.) A later episode "Don't Know Much About History" features another poem about nuclear war. Jennifer writes another poem in "My Brother's Keeper".
- Skippy is helping Alex pull off his master plan, and one final thing Skippy is to do if things go badly is to open the floor of the gymnasium over the swimming pool (a la It's a Wonderful Life). Alex says, "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
- Terry Wills appears in one of his seven episodes of the show.
- Rachel suggests three bands for the music: "Bloody Awful", "Return of the Dead", and "Liver Damage".
- Elyse remembers her prom with Steven when the band played "Our Day Will Come".
- Stunningly, Skippy is the voice of reason in Alex's love life dilemma. Skippy believes Alex has one date too many, but Alex says, "No, Skip. That's one me too few."
- Skippy flashes a badge inside his pink tuxedo saying, "Official prom business".
Gallery[]
